Free Republic

by Michael C. Bender | February 27th, 2010 Gov. Charlie Crist, a Republican U.S. Senate candidate, told The Palm Beach Post editorial board on Friday that, unlike many Republicans in Washington, he didn’t think President Obama should scrap his health care reform proposal: “There may be parts of it that you don’t have to scrap. There are three parts of it that I would like to see scrapped: It would raise taxes significantly, it would raise rates significantly and it would take half-a-trillion dollars out of Medicare. “I think the real issue here, as it relates to health care, is...

Amid revelations about how Republican U.S. Senate front-runner Marco Rubio wielded his Florida GOP credit card as state House speaker (not exactly conservatively), it seems some of his most vocal conservative supporters are plenty forgiving. Rubio agreed to reimburse the state party about $3,000 after the St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald bureau revealed that while House speaker he double-billed the state party and Florida taxpayers for eight flights between Miami and Tallahassee. Club for Growth spokesman Michael Connolly: "Sounds like Marco is doing the right thing reimbursing taxpayers for the $3,000. Hopefully Gov. Crist can do the same thing about that...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) told The Hill he’d be “glad to try to help” out Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (R) in his Senate race but he hasn’t been asked. Crist is in a tough primary battle with former state House Speaker Marco Rubio (R) for the state’s open Senate seat. “Sure, I’d be glad to try to help him,” McCain said in an interview with The Hill Wednesday but added Crist hasn’t yet asked for his help. Crist and then-Sen. Mel Martinez (R) gave McCain a critical endorsement in the waning days of Florida’s GOP presidential primary in 2008 that...

Charlie Crist apparently wants to cast himself as a reasonable moderate in the Florida Republican primary for the open Senate seat. That may be understandable with Marco Rubio’s rise as a conservative star in the national political fundament, but it takes more than gainsay to make an argument for moderate positions. Call this a Kirk Watson moment; when the Palm Beach Post challenged Crist’s insistence that he wouldn’t scrap ObamaCare by asking him to identify anything he liked about it, Crist came up empty (via Newsbeat1): Gov. Charlie Crist, a Republican U.S. Senate candidate, told The Palm Beach Post editorial...